ly as
tame, hopping gayly over the stones, bobbing their heads and puffing out
their red breasts; and tomtits, prudently watching awhile from the tops
of neighboring trees, then suddenly taking flight, and with quick, sharp
cries, seizing the grain on the wing. It was charming to see all these
little hungry creatures career around Reine's head, with a joyous
fluttering of wings. When the supply was exhausted, the young girl shook
her apron, turned around, and recognized Julien.

"Were you there, Monsieur de Buxieres?" she exclaimed; "come inside the
courtyard! Don't be afraid; they have finished their meal. Those are my
boarders," she added, pointing to the birds, which, one by one, were
taking their flight across the fields. "Ever since the first fall of
snow, I have been distributing grain to them once a day. I think they
must tell one another under the trees there, for every day their number
increases. But I don't complain of that. Just think, these are not birds
of passage; they do not leave us at the first cold blast, to find a
warmer climate; the least we can do is to recompense them by feeding them
when the weather is too severe! Several know me already, and are very
tame. There is a blackbird in particular, and a blue tomtit, that are
both extremely saucy!"

These remarks were of a nature to please Julien. They went straight to
the heart of the young mystic; they recalled to his mind St. Francis of
Assisi, preaching to the fish and conversing with the birds, and he felt
an increase of sympathy for this singular young girl. He would have liked
to find a pretext for remaining longer with her, but his natural timidity
in the presence of women paralyzed his tongue, and, already, fearing he
should be thought intruding, he had raised his hat to take leave, when
Reine addressed him:

"I do not ask you to come into the house, because I am obliged to go to
the sale of the Ronces woods, in order to speak to the men who are
cultivating the little lot that we have bought. I wager, Monsieur de
Buxieres, that you are not yet acquainted with our woods?"

"That is true," he replied, smiling.

"Very well, if you will accompany me, I will show you the canton they are
about to develop. It will not be time lost, for it will be a good thing
for the people who are working for you to know that you are interested in
their labors."

Julien replied that he should be happy to be under her guidance.

"In that case," said Reine, "wa